I took a session with Practice Greenhealth around sustainable procurement. They have a tool (Greenhealth Approved) which makes purchasing and identifying EPP products easier. It is a work in progress and the product catalog will grow over time. It's nice to have a trustworthy guide to follow.

Developing a strategy to optimize operations while we reduce our environmental impact...we want to maintain the highest standard of care and provide added value to our customers, our patients and continuously improve our care delivery while doing all that we can to minimize our contributions to the negative impact of environmental, social, and governance issues. Adopting principles of Lean Six Sigma will help us to achieve and maintain our goals & sustainability initiatives.

We are in the process of decommissioning anesthetic gases, such as piped-in nitrous oxide and desflurane, across our network. Led by a passionate anesthesiologist, we were met with resistance by many skeptics and many stuck in their old ways of doing things. We successfully implemented meaningful change at one of our hospitals and are championing that impact and savings to the others. I am proud of the work done so far...it's been a long time coming. Others will see the value and join our cause. We already have interested parties who are eager to join the efforts. Little victories!

It surprised me to think about the fact that healthcare institutions serve foods that are unhealthy, processed, of low nutritional value, and possibly laden with toxic chemicals to not only our patients, who do not have other options for sustenance while in our care, but also our staff (future patients).

In addition to independent reading, I have attended a session with Practice Greenhealth. It is costly to dispose of RMW (6-10x the cost of solid waste disposal). I think we need to select a few items for reprocessing that can convey the value added to those skeptical that it benefits us to reprocess rather than dispose of those current single-use items. We need to start small to be successful.

I would like to talk more with team members & explore lab recycling.
"The U.S. healthcare sector alone generates 1.7 million tons of plastic pollution every year."

Validation, not problem solving...it is in my nature to identify what's wrong, what's broken, what can be improved...however, that's not always what is needed in certain scenarios. It's hard to turn that off. I will continue to try my hardest to apply that to situations both at work & at home.

My mom has been rinsing, washing, and scrubbing recyclables for most of my life (and probably longer). Some thought it was overkill. I thought it was normal. I think being raised that way set me on a path into adulthood. I think cleaning and preventing contamination may be the most difficult part for many as it takes time and space that not everyone has to offer. If there was an easier, less complicated path/process...maybe more people would be apt to participate.

• Avoid buzzwords and vague claims
• Strike a balance between accuracy and relevancy
• Build trust
• Share measurable and trackable outcomes
• Start small to achieve big